ASMedia USB 3.0 still not ready for Prime Time!

Just a passing comment before I disable the USMedia USB 3.0 driver/ports on my ASR Z97 Extreme6 MB. First problem I had was connecting a USB Mouse and Keyboard to the ASMedia USB 3.0 ports on the back of the MB. For some reason neither device would allow wakeup from sleep state. No big deal but... Now that I've got the system settled down and working as advertised (I bought a 4 port USB 2.0 bracket to use the USB 2.0 connectors on the MB for the Mouse, Keyboard, Camera, etc.) I find that the transfer rate on the ASMedia USB 3.0 ports is about half the speed of the Intel USB 3.0 ports. I guess my question is, why would ASR bother putting this piece of crippled software/chip on their newest MB?! Seems like I remember giving up on ASMedia several years ago on an ASUS MB.

Re: ASMedia USB 3.0 still not ready for Prime Time!

Originally Posted by Ken429

Just a passing comment before I disable the USMedia USB 3.0 driver/ports on my ASR Z97 Extreme6 MB. First problem I had was connecting a USB Mouse and Keyboard to the ASMedia USB 3.0 ports on the back of the MB. For some reason neither device would allow wakeup from sleep state. No big deal but... Now that I've got the system settled down and working as advertised (I bought a 4 port USB 2.0 bracket to use the USB 2.0 connectors on the MB for the Mouse, Keyboard, Camera, etc.) I find that the transfer rate on the ASMedia USB 3.0 ports is about half the speed of the Intel USB 3.0 ports. I guess my question is, why would ASR bother putting this piece of crippled software/chip on their newest MB?! Seems like I remember giving up on ASMedia several years ago on an ASUS MB.

Don't forget that the Intel USB 3.0 ports are supplied by the Z97 chipset, and basically use the same "high speed I/O ports" (Intel terminology) that are used for the PCIe 2.0 lanes and the SATA III, 6Gb/s ports. Who knows what the ASMedia USB 3.0 chip uses and is no doubt a fraction of the price of the Z97 chipset.

Regarding why the ASMedia USB and SATA chips are used, that's easy... because more is always better!!

"Look Billy, this one has 17, and that one only 11. This one is better, it has more".

You can imagine how many sales are made by people seeing the board for the first time in a store (meaning no research), and reading the box and comparing it to another. More of whatever is perceived as better, thanks to Western culture, or the mutation of it by marketing. The more may not be worth much, but I have more so I came out ahead, right?

I just saw a forum post elsewhere, in a CPU discussion forum, that was literally asking this question, why is 16 nanometers better than 20 nanometers, since usually more is better?

Of course that person is clueless about the topic related to those references (to a degree I've never seen before) but that statement is a perfect example of what I'm saying.